2011 KIA Optima SX: Steals the show at 2011 NBA All-Star Weekend

How do you make an arena packed with A-list celebrities, NBA All-Stars, Professional athletes and their resident entourages stand-up and take notice? Well if you are the makers of the 2011 KIA Optima SX here’s how. You make a splash at NBA All-Star Weekend by having Blake Griffin – the most exciting player to hit the NBA in years – use your vehicle as a prop in the most interesting and innovative All-Star Slam Dunk Competition since Dwight Howard donned his Superman cape.

Bringing out a Gospel choir, having NBA analyst and former All-Star Kenny Smith as a hype man, then watching the presumptive NBA Rookie of the Year fly over the 2011 Optima SX will no doubt bring added interest to KIA’s superb sedan. Already available in the U.S. the Optima (formerly known as the Magentis here in Canada) goes on sale domestically this Spring.

Basketball players – in particular in the World of Sports – like to roll in the extremely high end of the luxury car market. So when baller turned broadcaster, Charles Barkley, dropped some “ooohs and ahhhs” over the entrance of the KIA Optima, you knew the bicycle manufacturers turned South Korea’s second largest auto maker were more than pleased.  Now whether Barkley was just being a good corporate citizen – after all KIA Motors is the Official Automotive Partner of the National Basketball Association – or he was truly moved by the sight of the 2011 KIA Optima SX, being pushed into position by it’s gloved handlers, is immaterial. What matters most is that in front of a World-wide audience watching at home and an arena packed with millionaire celebrities and athletes a mid-size, reasonably priced, Family sedan was front and centre in the spotlight.

The Optima line enters it’s second decade for KIA Motors and it is now moving in to position to grab market share in North America from other makers of mid-size Family cars. In a Twitter-verse where a picture is now worth 140 characters, being part of what will become a truly iconic Sports photo has given KIA’s 2011 Optima a boost of epic proportions.

Almost as epic as Blake Griffin’s audacious dunk.